Spring Common Academy & Prestley Wood Academy

It is our intention that all pupils are able to participate fully in an appropriate curriculum and make good progress, regardless of their educational needs or disability.

We have very high expectations of our learners and believe that they are capable of taking control of their own learning. We embrace the absolute necessity of providing a broad, balanced and coordinated curriculum, which is appropriate to the needs of the learner.
Provision for pupils is predominantly determined by a pupil’s needs, taking into account other factors such as their chronological age and developmental requirements.

Our teachers take into account the range of needs within a group in order to plan differentiated learning activities through appropriate short term plans. We take particular care to ensure that activities incorporate a multi-sensory approach, and that there are clear steps to achieve planned outcomes.

We promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development to prepare all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life. We incorporate opportunities for SMSC across the curriculum, including giving consideration to Fundamental British Values and PREVENT, whilst placing an emphasis of celebrating personal identity and belonging to the wider global community.

We recognise that young people with learning difficulties have unique abilities and ways of learning. We acknowledge that our pupils are likely to remain functioning at a cognitive level well below their chronological age for most of their school career and adult lives.
Correspondingly, our learners typically have inefficient and slow information processing speeds, little general knowledge, limited strategies for thinking and learning, and difficulties with generalisation and problem solving. Additionally, many of our learners find abstract or conceptual thinking a significant challenge.
 
Subsequently, we offer curricula which are appropriate for the needs of our learners, which we define as Pre-Formal, Semi-Formal or Formal modes. Elements of the three modes are delivered across the schools and across chronological age groups, based on the learning needs of the pupils. We recognise that many, but not all, of our learners will move across different curricula modes over time.

The school’s Policy for SEN and Disability provides a meaningful context for the design of the school’s curriculum and stresses the importance of ensuring that, “the design and organisation of the school’s whole curriculum and assessment are empathetic to the needs and rights of children and young adults with SEN and disabilities.